


Mobius

by paperjamBipper



Series: Memory Lane [11]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Gen, the Bottomless Pit - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:21:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25321555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperjamBipper/pseuds/paperjamBipper
Summary: Stan's tried just about everything he can to get his brother back.  He never considered that the Bottomless Pit could be the solution he's looking for.
Relationships: Dipper Pines & Mabel Pines, Dipper Pines & Mabel Pines & Stan Pines, Ford Pines & Stan Pines
Series: Memory Lane [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1830763
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39





	Mobius

“And I never saw that box of full of magical teeth ever again…” Mabel pauses, and then notices the locked box floating just below Stan’s feet. “Oh, there it is”

“Oh sweet, my shoes!” Soos says, and grabs the pair floating above his head and places them on his feet.

“Mabel, we already know that story! We just-” Dipper paused as a large asteroid passes below his feet. “Uh, guys, did you see that?” He says, but then Mabel taps his shoulder.

“Uh, Dip, you may want to look up” she says, and Dipper glances up slowly. Instead of the pitch blackness that had surrounded them moments ago, a thousand glistening stars have taken its place. And just like the one that passed under his feet, there’s a large asteroid shooting by in the close distance.

“Are we in…space?” Mabel asks, taking a big gasp of air.

“It doesn’t seem like it, Mabel. We’re breathing, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, but it still doesn’t make any sense! What do you think, Grunkle Stan?”

Stan doesn’t answer at first. Because there’s something eerily familiar about this place. Not familiar in the sense that he’s been there before, but more in the sense that he’s seen it before. Whether it was on TV, or in the newspaper, Stan couldn’t tell, but it’s really creeping him out. “It’s probably nothing, sweetie. I bet it’s just some kind of an optical illusion from falling for so long”

“Oh.” Mabel says, and then smiles. “Okay!” She says, and then turns to Dipper and Soos. She begins speaking, but Stan can’t seem to shake the feeling of familiarity of this place. He reaches up and tries to touch a nearby star, but his hand phases right through it. _That’s…odd._

“What about you, Grunkle Stan?” Mabel’s voice asks suddenly, snapping Stan out of his thought.

“Huh? What about me?”

“Do you want to tell a story? You didn’t get to tell one yet”

“Hey! I did tell a story. Do you need me to repeat it? It’s called ‘Grunkle Stan Wins The-’”

“We meant a _real_ story” Dipper’s eyebrow furrows, and Stan laughs.

“Alright, alright, fine. Just let me think of one first.” Stan thinks for a minute. “Aha! How about a totally true story about the time I beat this girl’s jerky boyfriend in a music competition for her affection?”

Mabel gasps. “Stan, that’s so sweet of you! Can you tell us? PLEEEEEEASE?” She asks, and Stan chuckles.

“Alright. It all started when this girl was down at the Juke Joint with her jerky hippie boyfriend. I was hanging there, like I always do, when they, uh, started arguing! And I went over to him and said, um, ‘you can’t treat that girl like that!’ Right? And then he got mad at me and said it was none of my business, since that was his girl. So I said ‘maybe she doesn’t want to be your girl”, and then he said ‘of course she does!’ and this girl, Carla, she says that maybe she doesn’t, and that the two of us should fight over her! But since this is the seventies, you know, Carla’s all ‘but you can’t hurt each other!’ So she-”

Stan pauses when he realizes Mabel isn’t looking at him anymore. “Uh, Mabel, I thought you wanted to hear this”

“I do! And I was totally listening to you, until I saw THAT! Look!” She points, and Dipper, Soos, and Stan all look in the direction she’s pointing in. Stan squints, because he can’t see very well, but no matter where he looks or how hard he squints, he can’t make out where they’re pointing.

“Woah!” Dipper says. “Is that…a person?”

“Oh yeah!” Mabel says. “He must’ve fallen down here too!

Stan freezes. There’s….there’s no way, right? The kids are just pulling his leg, right?

It couldn’t be. It’d be too good to be true.

“Hey!” Mabel’s sudden shouting interrupts his thoughts. “Hey mister! Way over there! Hellooooo???” She frantically waves her arms above her head, but gets nothing in response. However, when Dipper joins in too, the man must finally be able to hear them, and he turns his head. The tiny motion is finally enough to give away his location, and Stan can finally see him. And realization hits him all at once.

That hair. Those glasses. That figure. Even from this far away, it’s unmistakable. It has to be him. The first thing Stan feels is relief that he’s alive. He’s about to join in with the kids and shout his brother over, until Stan realizes something else. He’s trembling. He’s moving much slower than he and the kids are. And from where Stan is, he can barely make out the scars on his brother’s face.

He’s dying.

And it’s all Stan’s fault.

Stan clams up, and shoves his hands into his pockets. He looks away from his dying brother and closes his eyes. _All my fault. All my fault. All my fault._

He hears speaking in the distance, but he blocks it out. Even if it is Ford speaking, the last thing he needs is to hear his shaky voice.

He did this.

He did this to his own brother.

_All my fault. All my fault. All my-_

A sudden hand on his shoulder spooks him, and he turns around to see Dipper and Mabel looking worriedly at him.

“Grunkle Stan? Are you okay??”

“Huh?” Stan asks, and wipes his eye. He hadn’t realized it, but he had started crying, too. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? We’ve been trying to get your attention for two minutes”

“Yeah, yeah, but what about the other guy? Did you get him to come over to you? Is he okay?”

Dipper and Mabel look at each other in confusion.

“We couldn’t get his attention. I don’t think he saw us when he looked over here. Why?”

Stan swallows hard. “Uh, no reason. I just…wanted to make sure he was okay, because, uh, if he’s okay that means we’re gonna be okay, right?”

“Stan…” Mabel looks at him with her big, puppy-like eyes, and Stan tries to look away. He can’t lie to her when she looks at him like that. “Do you know him?”

Stan doesn’t answer at first, but then sighs heavily and turns to face the twins. “Yeah.” He says, and both of them gasp.

“Grunkle Stan…” Mabel says, and grabs his arm gently. “Who was that?”

Stan finds himself choking up, but he clears his throat. “That’s…that’s my brother”

“Oh man…” The twins say in unison, and then they exchange glances. Stan closes his eyes, but suddenly feels four small arms around him. He feels tears forming in his eyes, but he wipes them away before the twins can see.

“We’re here for you, Grunkle Stan”

Stan is speechless. He’s only known these kids for less than a month and they’re already comforting him like they’ve known him all his life.

“How did he even get down here?” Dipper asks, glancing off in the direction of where he had seen Ford. Stan rubs his eyes. He hates to tell this to the kids so early, but now it seems he doesn’t have a choice.

“Kids, there’s something I need to tell you” Stan pauses, and takes a look around. “And if we ever make it back to the Shack in one piece,” he pauses to hold the twins closer. “There’s something I need to show you”


End file.
